1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a medical device including a guide wire used at the time when a balloon catheter is placed at a strictured area of a blood vessel (e.g., coronary artery) to cure the strictured area, and particularly concerns to a balloon catheter used in combination with the medical guide wire.
2. Description of Related Art
Upon treating a strictured area of a blood vessel, a very thin flexible medical guide wire is inserted into the strictured area of the blood vessel to place a leading end of the guide wire to advance past the strictured area.
Thereafter, a tubular balloon catheter is introduced along the guide wire to reach the strictured area by handling a grip of the guide wire outside the blood vessel.
Then, a balloon portion of balloon catheter is inflated due to a liquid (e.g., physiological saline solution) infused into the balloon catheter to forcibly expand the strictured area of the blood vessel. This permits a normal amount of blood to run through the strictured area of the blood vessel so as to remedy the strictured area of the blood vessel. By way of illustration, this is exemplified by a Japanese Provisional Utility Model Publication No. 5-19078.
In the prior remedial method in which the medical guide wire is inserted into the blood vessel, and thereafter the balloon catheter is introduced along the guide wire into the strictured area of the blood vessel, two step procedures are required to inflate the balloon portion. One is inserting the guide wire, and the other is introducing the balloon catheter into the strictured area of the blood vessel along the guide wire. To implement the two step procedures would be time-consuming, and aggravate pains that the patient sustains, in addition to intrusiveness that the patient feels, during the manipulation of the medical guide wire against the blood vessel.
Further, in the case in which the medical guide wire is absorbably capped with the balloon catheter that is diametrically greater than the medical guide wire, an open edge of the balloon catheter forms a stepped section against the medical guide wire.
The stepped section would become an obstacle upon inserting the guide wire into the strictured area of the blood vessel. This is all the more time-consuming because the manipulator must be prudent not to make the stepped section hitch the strictured area and the blood vessel. Otherwise, the stepped section would injure the blood vessel and/or the strictured area of the blood vessel.
Therefore, the present invention has been made with the above drawbacks in mind, it is a main object of the invention to provide a medical guide wire for curing a coronary artery combined with a balloon catheter which is capable of inserting the medical guide wire into a blood vessel and a strictured area of the blood vessel smoothly and quickly without injuring them, thus achieving remedial procedures for a short period of time with ease and safety.